"Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew."
“Failing and Flying” by Jack Gilbert, via Atoms vs Bits.
Welcome to my internet house.
Happy Birthday, Sammy! 🎉
At first I thought this story was trite, but it stuck with me.
I want to open an adoption shelter for my friends’ excellent unreleased albums.
The orchestration of Herb Alpert “This Guy’s In Love With You” is crazy.
And: “If not I’ll just die…” Gulp.
When I landed in New York my parents presented me with a hunk of noodle kugel.
Kawésqar people wear few clothes, not more, in the winter.
Jumbo Slice For Your Busy Life not a bad band name.
I can’t believe it’s 2025 and any politician still starts their message with the idiomatic “folks.”
At the beach last week, I loved to see the seagull footprints on the sand.
Mid-walk, entering “the zone,” on day seven, I arrived to Karuizawa in a state of extreme beatificity. Just felt good. … If the creator itself came down from the sky at the end of a big walking and photographing and writing day and asked: Did ya do all ya could today? I’d be able to answer, without hesitation, heck yes. I suspect we’re “programmed” to feel good about this … I’d go so far to say that “full days” is one of the wells from which we derive our humanity.
At the DMV, when they ask you to put your face in the vision tester machine, they hand you a little slice of paper towel to protect your forehead from germs.
“I’ll feel good if I clean the house.” But then you won’t feel good because you didn’t work on your creative stuff.
“I’ll feel good if I work on my creative stuff.” But then you won’t feel good because the house is a mess and you’re behind on everything.
So you gotta clean a little and work a little (or a lot).
The beach moves to the parking lot one shoeful at a time.
When the Left talks about spending less money on defense, we should talk about how we’re going to keep everyone safe in the same breath. Diplomacy and deterrence should be mentioned every time we talk about opposing militarism and ending war profiteering.
The Onion: Plan To Start Little Stationery Store Too Sad For Bank To Deny Loan
Del Toro’s Frankenstein:
“The hunter did not hate the wolf. The wolf did not hate the sheep. But violence felt inevitable between them.” (The Creature)
“Forgive. Forget. The true measure of wisdom. To know you have been harmed, by whom you have been harmed, and choose to let it all fade.” (The Blind Man)
Towards the end of the 1970s, Di Modica bought 54 Crosby Street, a vacant lot not far from his first studio. After tearing down the original shack, he built a new building using salvaged materials, completely to his own design and without planning permission. Among the materials he used were seven-meter beams of timber that he attached to himself and dragged back to Crosby Street through the streets at night, as well as 8,000 bricks that he bought for $400 from a priest. He would then go on to add two underground levels, again without the necessary permission, covertly removing the rubble under the cover of darkness. Crosby Street would become his creative center, where he lived, worked and hosted lively art parties and events.
New post: Tennessee Bass Bumping
In talking, you wanna go slow enough to only say things you mean to say.
In musicking, you wanna go fast enough to say things you didn’t know you wanted to say.
Cory Arcangel made a cool video for Oneohtrix Point Never.
Who needs junk food when there are cucumbers with a fanciful pinch of Maldon salt on them? I mean really?
We used to be able to tell computers what to do. Now they make stuff up.
A few weeks ago I learned about charge pumps. And they sounded to me like a zillion fresh starts strung together, increasing your ability to do work.
We opened a door and Charlie Chaplin slithered out from behind it. (A cardboard cutout folded and fell down.)
Liam and I saw a fucking armadillo! Making its nighttime rounds in New Orleans.
This book cover made me audibly say “wow.”
New albums from Liam Kazar and Mavis Staples out today! I played on part of both of em.
From Paul I learned to use detergents and cleaning sprays more liberally.
I pay close attention to my snot.
Pop Tarts
If the world were ending tomorrow
I’d eat some Pop Tarts
Oliver Burkeman: You have to do the living yourself
I don’t mean to suggest … that environmental or pharmacological tools have no role to play in behaviour change. … Willpower has severe limits; you can’t reliably use it to power through problems that are emotional at their core. … And yet … There seems to be something crucial about … actively committing and recommitting, again and again, to going in the direction you want to travel, instead of acting as a spectator to your life, watching to see whether the systems you’ve put in place perform as you’d hoped they would or not.
If you’re not in that gathering mode, you won’t be making anything. It’s easy to flip the switch and say “I’m in gathering mode,” but you have to mean it.
To operate smoothly, economies have long depended on essential platforms, be they city markets, Main Streets or infrastructure like railroads and bridges. … Historically, the government has imposed limits on how much money the platforms could take from the people and businesses that relied on them … These limits were imposed not to constrain economic growth but to foster it: They protected the incentives for other economic actors to invest and build on the platforms. …
Last year, Amazon charged private sellers, on average, between 50 and 60 percent of their sales in fees, according to the research firm Marketplace Pulse. You don’t need a degree in economics to see how that can discourage investment and innovation. … It’s effectively a system of private taxation.
Mowed the lawn on a show day.
The traditional goal [in customer service call centers] is to handle calls as quickly as possible — if there’s even a number for customers to call at all … Uniqlo has flipped this idea on its head, treating the call center as a site of R&D, inspiration, and opportunities they otherwise would have overlooked.
Can someone remind me how to write a newsletter again?
I didn’t think I would like Blade but I loved Blade.
Recommended: B-grade pencils.
I look at all my loves sideways.
I bought some vegan Blundstones.
I realized my to-do list was upside-down.
I had admin work at the top, daily routines in the middle, and creative hunches/dreams/plans at the bottom.
The first list keeps your house running, the second list keeps your hair from catching fire, and the last list gets you up in the morning. Why would the list that gets you up in the morning be last?
Depression isn’t a choice but being a sorry son of a bitch sorta is.
(See also: Keep On the Sunny Side.)
Crape myrtle trees are beautiful.
OMG. Thank you for the kind words, Walter!
(And Austin for the heads up.)
Embrace seasonality.
Damn, this is nice. Thank you, Joey Sweeney.
We played "Enough" and "Lou Reed Was My Babysitter" on Colbert
And Dad sat down for an interview.
Did you know that whales and dolphins evolved from a wolf-like mammal?
“Our current boom of species diversity is newish. We haven’t always had so many different kinds of life, and in the past, the world has looked really different. It changes and shifts. We are having a huge impact on the earth but other species have before and others will again. I find calm and acceptance in that feeling of being along for the ride.”
Ooooook another new word. (What am I, five?) Sexton: “an officer of the church who is in charge of sacred objects.”
From Anne Kadet’s interview with a street pastor.
Two more new words learned: leonine and veld. Resembling a lion. And a type of grassland, especially in South Africa, with scattered shrubs or trees.
Liam released a new song today. “Didn’t I.” Dedicated to his grandma, Mimi. From the forthcoming Pilot Light. (I play drums on this song.)
In Portland, Maine, I bought pens and pencils from a 105-year-old office supply store proprietor.
Learned a new word: echt—true, genuine.
Another new word: bosky, having abundant trees or shrubs, or of/or relating to a woods.
Hi from Lebanon, New Hampshire.
George Saunders: “I find that my life is simplified if, when I’m tempted to have an opinion, I ask myself why I need one, and what I aim to do with it.”
Chicago by Carl Sandburg.
I like Andy Matuschak’s website.
Craig Mod (on day 7 of “Between Two Mountains”): “There is an implicit tautology in why we do what we do: we do it because we are able to be good at it.”
God I love Rumble Strip.